I learned, meantime, that of the four men by whom we had been assaulted, one only, and the coachman, returned to Glatz. The name of the officer who undertook this vile business was Gersdorf; he had a hundred and fifty ducats in his pocket when found dead. How great would our good fortune have been, had not that cursed coach and six, by its appearance, made us take to flight; since the booty would have been most just! Fortune, this time, did not favour the innocent; and though treacherously attacked, I was obliged to escape like a guilty wretch. We sold the watch to a Jew for four ducats, the hat for three florins and a half, and the musket for a ducat, Schell being unable to carry it farther. We left most of this money behind us at Parsemechi. A Jew surgeon sold us some dear plaisters, which we took with us and departed.
Feb. 15.--From Parsemechi, through Vielum, to Biala, four miles.
Feb. 16.--Through Jerischow to Misorcen, four miles and a half.
Feb. 17.--To Osterkow and Schwarzwald, three miles.
Feb. 18.--To Sdune, four miles.
Feb. 19.--To Goblin two miles.
Here we arrived wholly destitute of money. I sold my coat to a Jew, who gave me four florins and a coarse waggoner's frock, in exchange, which I did not think I should long need, as we now drew nearer to where my sister lived, and where I hoped I should be better equipped. Schell, however, grew weaker and weaker; his wounds healed slowly, and were expensive; the cold was also injurious to him, and, as he was not by nature cleanly in his person, his body soon became the harbour of every species of vermin to be picked up in Poland. We often arrived wet and weary, to our smoky, reeking stove-room. Often were we obliged to lie on straw, or bare boards;and the various hardships we suffered are almost incredible.
Wandering as we did, in the midst of winter, through Poland, where humanity, hospitality, and gentle pity, are scarcely so much as known by name; where merciless Jews deny the poor traveller a bed, and where we disconsolately strayed, without bread, and almost naked: these were sufferings, the full extent of which he only can conceive by whom they have been felt. My musket now and then procured us an occasional meal of tame geese, and cocks and hens, when these were to be had; otherwise, we never took or touched anything that was not our own. We met with Saxon and Prussian recruiters at various places; all of whom, on account of my youth and stature, were eager to inveigle me. I was highly diverted to hear them enumerate all the possibilities of future greatness, and how liable I was hereafter to become a corporal: nor was I less merry with their mead, ale, and brandy, given with an intent to make me drunk. Thus we had many artifices to guard against; but thus had we likewise, very luckily for us, many a good meal gratis.
Feb. 21.--We went from Goblin to Pugnitz, three miles and a half.
Feb. 22.--Through Storchnest to Schmiegel, four miles.
Here happened a singular adventure. The peasants at this place were dancing to a vile scraper on the violin: I took the instrument myself, and played while they continued their hilarity. They were much pleased with my playing: but when I was tired, and desired to have done, they obliged me, first by importunities, and afterwards by threats, to play on all night. I was so fatigued, I thought Ishould have fainted; at length they quarrelled among themselves.
Schell was sleeping on a bench, and some of them fell upon his wounded hand: he rose furious: I seized our arms, began to lay about me, and while all was in confusion, we escaped, without further ill-treatment.
What ample subject of meditation on the various turns of fate did this night afford! But two years before I danced at Berlin with the daughters and sisters of kings: and here was I, in a Polish hut, a ragged, almost naked musician, playing for the sport of ignorant rustics, whom I was at last obliged to fight.
I was myself the cause of the trifling misfortune that befell me on this occasion. Had not my vanity led me to show these poor peasants I was a musician, I might have slept in peace and safety. The same vain desire of proving I knew more than other men, made me through life the continued victim of envy and slander. Had nature, too, bestowed on me a weaker or a deformed body, I had been less observed, less courted, less sought, and my adventures and mishaps had been fewer. Thus the merits of the man often become his miseries; and thus the bear, having learned to dance, must live and die in chains.
This ardour, this vanity, or, if you please, this emulation, has, however, taught me to vanquish a thousand difficulties, under which others of cooler passions and more temperate desires would have sunk. May my example remain a warning; and thus may my sufferings become somewhat profitable to the world, cruel as they have been to myself! Cruel they were, and cruel they must continue; for the wounds I have received are not, will not, cannot be healed.
Feb. 23.--From Schmiegel to Rakonitz, and from thence to Karger Holland, four miles and a half. Here we sold, to prevent dying of hunger, a shirt and Schell's waistcoat for eighteen grosch, or nine schostacks. I had shot a pullet the day before, which necessity obliged us to eat raw. I also killed a crow, which I devoured alone, Schell refusing to taste. Youth and hard travelling created a voracious appetite, and our eighteen grosch were soon expended.
Feb. 24.--We came through Benzen to Lettel, four miles. Here we halted a day, to learn the road to Hammer, in Brandenburg, where my sister lived. I happened luckily to meet with the wife of a Prussian soldier who lived at Lettel, and belonged to Kolschen, where she was born a vassal of my sister's husband. I told her who I was, and she became our guide.
Feb. 26.--To Kurschen and Falkenwalde.
Feb. 27.--Through Neuendorf and Oost, and afterwards through a pathless wood, five miles and a half to Hammer, and here I knocked at my sister's door at nine o'clock in the evening.
